Controllably deployable area suppression and countermeasure materials of several types are used to deter and defeat attacks on aircraft by other aircraft, missiles, and antiaircraft artillery. In each case, the material is deployed by an aircraft to confuse an attacker, and specifically the sensor used by the attacker, creating a radar-jamming cloud.
A conventional method for the self-protection of aircraft and the like from radar-guided missiles employs a chaff dispenser for ejecting chaff material in the form of pre-cut dipoles, or lengths of reflective or absorptive materials such as metallized glass or graphite fibers, into the airstream immediately along the flight path of the aerial vehicle. One or more cartridges containing dipoles of a length selected in accordance with an expected radar frequency are fired from the dispensing device into the airstream where there is formed a cloud, or bloom, of the chaff which spoofs the radar and thereby provides protection of the vehicle.
Some chaff dispensing systems have been employed that cut chaff dipoles in-flight, but they typically are bulky, heavy and have a relatively slow response time. Chaff bundles typically have round or elliptical cross sections, and they are typically loaded into dispensing systems with their long axes oriented vertically. Chaff rovings are unspooled from the center of the bundle for chopping into desired lengths by the cutter during dispensing operations. The vertical orientation often results, due to a roving bundle's weight (e.g., approximately 50 pounds for common roving bundles) in compression forces that cause the roving bundle to lose its structural support leading to spooling jams when the chaff may be critically needed. Vertical stacking of multiple chaff bundles on top of one another would only exacerbate this fault mode.
Thus, conventional in-flight chaff dispensing systems present a number of problems, and an improved self-protection device has been needed for some time. Therefore, the device of the present invention has been developed to overcome problems associated with such conventional chaff dispensing systems.